The newly formed DMV Racing League kicked off the 2017-2018 on Saturday, 10/28/17 at the Thomas Jefferson Library in Arlington. A couple of conflicts for expected drivers limited the field to four people so, of course, we took two cars each.

The course was the Cleveland Race Track, run at Burke Lake Airport for many Indycar races from the 1990’s to the early 2010’s. It is a wide track, but difficult because many of the curves, the narrowest spots of the track, are separated by very short straights. This makes overtaking a challenge because in order to use wear and gain an advantage through a curve, drivers are often forced to spend in both corners, doubling the wear expenditure.

Tim M decided to run a sprint-out-front strategy and not only bid 7.5 for the pole, but built a car with just 20 brakes. This contrasted with Chris’s 60-60 Accel-Decel setup, for both cars, one of which planned to race from the front by bidding 5 wear and taking a 100 start speed. The other chose a run-from-behind strategy, inspired by some of the very wide sections of track and probably not thinking about the close proximity of the curves. Brian and Tim C opted for 40-40 cars, with other factors varying, although Tim C spent a bundle on driver skill and started warming up the dice.

For most of the race Tim M’s rabbit car led, sometimes by as much as 8 spaces, but the tires were getting worn away and about halfway through the race… he missed a braking roll. This was tough. His brakes were now ZERO… meaning that he had to roll to slow down at all.

Tim C’s skill chips came into play and both of his cars charge to the front of the pack, but they were out of wear and this really limited Tim’s flexibility when approaching curves. Brian’s middle-of-the-road design kept him near the front for most of the race, but Tim M’s rabbit car caused him to burn through wear more quickly than he would have liked when it appeared, until Tim’s brake failure that, despite the limited braking, he might just win this thing.

Chris’s off-pace car got a big break in qualifying. After bids of 7.5 (Tim M), 5 (Chris B), and 4 (Brian), everyone else, including both of Tim C’s cars, bid zero. Then, miraculously, Chris’s roll of 7 stood up as the best tiebreaker roll, putting that car fourth on the grid. Further compounding trouble at the back, Tim’s back-marker car had a bad start, reducing speed by 20… from 20, so he had to start the next turn at zero, too.

As the first lap ended, Tim’s rabbit had a commanding lead with Brian and Chris’s faster cars in second and third. Tim C had both of his cars running together and sharing some nice drafts and curve maneuvering. The bottom of the order was a mirror image of the top as second cars from Chris, Brian, and Tim (who followed up his poor start with a spin), finished lap one in 6th, 7th, and 8th.

The second lap saw Tim M and Brian duking it out for the lead, while Tim C’s two cars burned up the dice, using copious driver skill to pull into third and fourth. Chris’s two cars were in 5th and 6th, but the positions were switched and the car that had started on the front row was now trailing his teammate. Brian and Tim continued to bring up the rear, but, having conserve wear, they looked like they’d outpace the cars in front of them.

As the third and final lap drew to a close there were three spins on the second last and last corners, including two cars blocking both lanes of the curve. Chris B used a wide section near the pit entrance to avoid having to slow, force passed Tim M, and caught Tim C’s lead car on the last curve, spending two wear to maintain speed through the curve and across the finish line on the next turn. The spins opened the door for Chris’s second car to pull into third. Brian and Tim M recovered, but not in time to gain the podium.[/quote]